Best practices in nursing

The changing landscape of nursing

Globally, the healthcare industry is experiencing a shortage of qualified clinical care providers. This is especially evident in the nursing sector. Hospitals, often faced with the pressures of meeting financial mandates, are reducing nursing staff ratios which leave nurses feeling overburdened. In addition, in recent years, the field of nursing has changed. Nurses are expected to have increased skill sets and responsibilities as today's patient populations require increasingly complex care. However, a lack of clinical practice time does not prepare nurses to meet the challenges of today's healthcare environment.

Nurses are in high demand all over the world, and the demand continues to increase. Globally, the need for nurses is increasing as the aging population is estimated to require roughly 50% of all healthcare resources by 2020. Nursing shortage numbers are critical, with at least 10 million new nurses needed worldwide.

Preparing nurses for the future

At this time of change and challenge, not only more but better prepared nurses are essential to meet the needs of the changing landscape of healthcare. Educators need to be equipped with the knowledge, skills, and behaviors to create and deliver experiential learning encounters that promote reflective practice and result in measureable outcomes.

Increasingly, the use of simulation-based education has been adopted to enhance or supplement classroom learning and clinical experiences. Simulation can also be used for student remediation on selected skills, to assess students’ clinical competencies and decision-making skills, and to orient students to clinical challenges that they may not encounter directly or regularly, but for which they need to be prepared. Simulation can be used to accelerate the transition to practice, to improve onboarding efficiency, to enhance professional training programs, and ultimately, to help improve patient outcomes.

High quality simulation can replace 50% of clinical hours

The largest and most comprehensive study examining the use of simulation by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) found that up to 50 percent simulation was effectively substituted for traditional clinical experience in all core courses across the prelicensure nursing curriculum.

Providing the tools to help save more lives

The nursing profession has expanded its scope, responsibility, skills and education and as a result different ways of developing competence are required. A growing body of research suggests that educating faculty to implement best practices in simulation is essential to a successful program.

Through simulation-based learning, students can experience successes and mistakes while gaining the necessary confidence in a safe environment. When applied in actual care settings, in-situ simulation promotes training efficiency by utilizing the team’s real environment protocol, processes, and equipment that the team uses every day. By including low-frequency, high-acuity simulation events in a healthcare professional’s training, students learn to calmly and accurately care for patients in high-risk situations. Simulation-based education can help educate, train, and onboard high quality nurses efficiently, while reducing skills deficiencies and providing tools to help address the nursing gaps to help save more lives.

How Laerdal can help

Designed with nurses in mind, our nursing solutions focus on the identification of learning objectives that can be achieved with simulation. Once the appropriate learning objectives are established, content is defined to support the objectives. Finally, the right tool or tools are recommended to implement the simulation experience. Based on the most current nursing curricula, we have integrated extensive customer feedback to ensure we meet the specific needs of our users. Laerdal is committed to supporting nursing programs with the tools, support and service necessary to help our customers achieve their goals and help save more lives.